Four of the five remaining Tory leadership candidates – Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat – have pledged to support the government’s legally binding target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
The Tory leadership contenders have signed up to a number of commitments presented by the Conservative Environment Network (CEN), including continuing green farming subsidies after Brexit and moving to renewable energy.
The other leadership candidate, Kemi Badenoch, has yet to sign the pledge and has previously described the net zero target as “arbitrary”. She has been contacted for comment.
The pledge specifically commits candidates to achieving the government’s key environmental targets, including net zero by 2050 and halting species decline by 2030.
It also obliges candidates to reform the EU’s farm payment scheme and instead pay landowners to protect the environment. Those who sign the pledge affirm that they believe renewable energy is the future and promise to invest in new clean technologies.
The pledge states that “care for the environment is at the heart of Conservatism” and commits to “continuing the Conservative Party’s leadership role on the environment” and “addressing the defining environmental challenges of our generation”.
There has been a fierce battle between the Tories on climate and environment, with minister and peer Zac Goldsmith even saying he would vote for the opposition party if the Conservative leader ditched net zero.
The party’s green wing is struggling to regain control of the climate and net-zero conversation after two leadership candidates, Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman, who is now out of the race, said they would push back the 2050 target.
It seems they have succeeded somewhat. Although Tugendhat told the 1922 committee that he would also move the target, he appears to have changed his mind after angry responses from his colleagues.
He said when asked by reporters on Thursday: “Of course I agree with the goal, but no one has yet defined the path to achieve it.” He has now joined CEN’s goals.
Sunak, for his part, assured the party’s green wing that he plans to protect the environment if elected leader. There are 120 MPs in CEN who want candidates to reassure them on climate policies after a tumultuous start to the leadership race. Chris Skidmore, a leading Green Tory who chairs the all-party parliamentary environment group, threw his support behind Sunak after meetings in which the former chancellor assured him he would not roll back climate policies.
Skidmore told the Guardian: “Since the Conservative Party leadership race began, we’ve seen some very worrying statements from several candidates that have sent shockwaves through the international climate scene – suggesting that the UK needs to tone down its climate commitments or abandon net zero by 2050.
“To do so would not only be disastrous for the future of the UK economy – particularly in the post-industrial regions of the North, the so-called ‘red wall’, which are currently benefiting directly from the green industrial revolution – but would be disastrous for UK leadership kingdom on climate, especially while we were still Chair of Cop26.”
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